The Economics Journal

Economist reports that there is a big spike in the sales of Atlas Shrugged – the monumental philosophical tome of Ayn Rand – since the start of the credit crisis. They even plotted the book sales against the economic events, and seems every time the government brings some major policy attempting to “solve” the crisis, the sale of the book goes up. Nothing incites as much love and hate as this book.  And the book’s tagline – Who is John Galt is forever etched in the popular culture.

I have read the book atleast 5 times and consider it to be one among the greatest literary works ever written and thought I will share some opinion on this. From where I grew up, Atlas shrugged is not a political manifesto, but a kind of rite of passage from teenager into an adult. Almost every major college in India has fan clubs for this book, and since the reading of it was so normal (you don’t need to be a libertarian or atheist or anarchist anything) and so I didn’t go through the stereotyping process that goes on in America.

What’s this book and why is it having such devoted audience decades after it was written?

Atlas Shrugged comes at the end of a long line of Ayn Ran’s novels, including Fountainhead, We the Living and Anthem. It stresses on the role of true creators and innovators, who are bogged down by the various individuals and organizations who try to victimize the successful people in the name of flattening the society’s inequalities. The story revolves around 3 main characters – a railroad executive (modeled by Ayn Rand as a vision of herself), a steel tycoon, a playboy squandering on the wealth of his inheritance who all come to grip with the reality of the society with the help of the title character – a former engineer in an auto factory.

It is a slight exaggeration of the then prevailing condition in US wherein the top earners were taxed at 90% +. It is about a Strike, different from the normal strikes that laborers do, in that it is the strike by the most creative members of the society. If the best scientists, philosophers, economists, musicians, bankers and businessmen suddenly disappear from the society, how would the society react. Particularly if the society is used to earning most of its taxes from its top 1% of the creators, what would the government do? It is unusual, because it is normally the expendable sections of the society that goes on the strikes, while the creators stay at work for the love of what they are doing.

If somebody whiles away his time and stays poor, while his classmate works hard and reaches the top echelons of the society, who is more valuable to the society? Why does one benefit from the society while the other is punished by the same. While the socialists see the former as the victim and latter as an example for greed and inequality, the Randists think the reverse. It brings the unique perspective that the person whom we thought of as really successful is in fact the victim. He is constantly made to be ashamed of the fact that he is rich and made guilty of the fact that people are poor. And of course he has to pay many times the tax of his lazy classmate for the “privilege” of being a part of the society. Even if we wants to build economic solutions for solving poverty, his solutions are thrashed, because there is power to be made in keeping the poor as poor, and there are some people who specialize in this.

Relevance to today

The book covers a wide range of topics and some of the pertinent issues concern, how much we should tax the creators and how do we create incentives for the people to push hard and reach the top. It is about how not to interfere with the society and how not to create policies that tries to produce equality of outcomes, instead of equality of opportunities. For example, in a soccer field if you expect all players to treated fair and applied the same rule of law, you will accept randist philosophy. However, if you enforce all players to score the same number of goals, and penalise the top scorers, you will embrace socialism. At a time when government is deeply involved in stopping a necessary cleanup from the market action and tries to reward people who made horrible homebuying decisions, this book’s ideals come relevant.

How to read this book?

Given the size (at 1100 pages plus) and intensity of philosophy, it is easy to go wrong. Also, it is hard to get the complete meaning of it in the first reading. I have read through that book atleast 5 times, and remember my first reading as some kind of bewildering moment. I went back and forth to get more meaning out of it. I later realized that a reading of We the Living, as a starter, could have given me the necessary warmup and background.

I think it would be better to start with Fountainhead or We The Living, move to Anthem and then finally to Atlas Shrugged. Don’t see Atlas Shrugged as some political manifesto or some kind of anti-God, anti-Government,anti-mediocre material. Try to read it with an open mind without your pre-conceived notions. Like any poem or painting, there will be exaggerations to give a crisp character portrayal. That is standard with any work of art. Appreciate those exaggerations and don’t take them literally.

Think of this: Have you ever come across a time when you were derided in a group for being good in some talent? Have ever been embarrassed for saying that you were good in any skill? Have you ever felt the pure spirit of some hardworking soul – sportsmen, inventor, musician, etc… and spent that moment when you were in their shoe and enjoying the peak of ecstasy that comes with the joy of creation? Have you ever created something (however small) and felt supremely proud – wow that’s mine? Think of those moments when you read the book. You can get new perspective out of it.

Who is John Galt? (I receive no commission or any other monetary benefit from linking this)